iPhone &/or Some good news

Yes, I have an iPhone now. While there seem to be apps for everything (even sleeping), I am mighty impressed with the PDF reader. You can take photos of book pages, turn them into a PDF and then email the document to yourself! The reader is very easy to use and it means I can take some reading material with me wherever I go and get it up on the screen in no time at all. < /end excited rant >

In other news, it was a good meeting with my supervisor on Friday. I do not think I will ever stop being grateful for having a supervisor who reads what I send through before meetings. I do not know if she just thought she would cut me some slack or if I am actually getting closer, but she was happy with my one page methodology break down. Yay!

What we spent the time talking about was clarifying the language I will use to talk about my project. It is starting to feel like it is taking shape. I get the feeling that my supervisor is starting to work out my use of irony when I talk about the basis of my project and I think the idea of looking at a ‘mixed community’ rather than going out to somewhere labeled by the government and demographers as ‘disadvantaged’.

So what does my project actually have to do with my iPhone? Well, probably not much. However, as I am getting greater clarity on how I can describe what I want to do I am starting to be able to image how I will negotiate my way through field work. The ability to update an online diary was certainly one of the most significant motivators for me actually ordering an iPhone. I see this as a way to be able to meet what I anticipate as a requirement for a minimum risk ethics approval, that somebody from the university knows my whereabouts when I am carrying out research. If I update any changes to my planned movements through a password protected shared diary my supervisor could, at least in theory, check my planned whereabouts at any time. While I certainly do not think this would make me feel like I am any safer or my research is any more ethical, I am becoming less idealistic. I feel like I am becoming more willing to listen to what I need to do to get my project off the ground (or maybe out of my head and onto the footpath), whether this means jumping ethics committee hurdles or favouring clarity in how I talk about my project.